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Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Create Hand-Crafted Upcycled Toys!

I have been inspired to experiment with making homemade upcycled toys
for my sweet little 2 year old nephew, Bobby! I always enjoy giving him a
little present every time I see him, but I hate to spend the money and
support the funding of new, manufactured plastics that are ultimately
littering our beautiful planet...So instead, I am now making him
homemade toys from recycle materials that I have collected and found
around the house. Stay tuned for more blog posts with more upcycled toy
ideas that I will share! These toy books pictured ("Recycled Crafts Box" and "Creating by Recycling") have been great
sources of ideas and inspiration for me and I have found them at my
local library...maybe you can check them out too!

These books have inspired me to explore my "trash" and transform it into
a fun, little "treasure" for my nephew to play with. Here I have
transformed a package of SunSpire Almond Butter Cups (you can use any peanut
butter candy cups packaging for this toy, as long as there are spaces
for three candy cups).

Traffic Light:

Materials:

- 3 packages of peanut or almond butter chocolate candy cups (placed on
top of one another toy make the finished product thick and durable for
play...also upcylcing more plastic is great too!)

- a small piece of recycled cardboard (measured to fit the size of the nut butter candy cup package)

- clear packaging tape

- acyclic paint (in red, yellow, and green)

- coloring markers (in red, yellow, and green)

This is a great toy for keeping the little guy's attention in the
backseat of the car while driving...and it's educational! Its a fun toy
to play with when you drive and reach a traffic light; say "red means
STOP!" and "green means GO!". My nephew pushes the lights like they are
buttons...he has so much fun with this little toy!

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